Association between genetic risk variants and glucose intolerance during pregnancy in north Indian women

BACKGROUND: Gestational diabetes (GDM) is a more common problem in India than in many other parts of the world but it is not known whether this is due to unique environmental factors or a unique genetic background. To address this question we examined whether the same genetic variants associated with GDM and Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) in Caucasians also were associated with GDM in North Indian women. METHODS: Five thousand one hundred pregnant women of gestational age 24–28 weeks from Punjab were studied by a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). GDM was diagnosed by both WHO1999 and 2013 criteria. 79 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously associated with T2D and glycemic traits (12 of them also with GDM) and 6 SNPs from previous T2D associations based on Indian population (some also with European) were genotyped on a Sequenom platform or using Taqman assays in DNA from 4018 women. RESULTS: In support of previous findings in Caucasian GDM, SNPs at KCJN11 and GRB14 loci were nominally associated with GDM1999 risk in Indian women (both p = 0.02). Notably, T2D risk alleles of the variant rs1552224 near CENTD2, rs11708067 in ADCY5 and rs11605924 in CRY2 genes associated with protection from GDM regardless of criteria applied (p < 0.025). SNPs rs7607980 near COBLL1 (p = 0.0001), rs13389219 near GRB14 (p = 0.026) and rs10423928 in the GIPR gene (p = 0.012) as well as the genetic risk score (GRS) for these previously shown insulin resistance loci here associated with insulin resistance defined by HOMA2-IR and showed a trend towards GDM. GRS comprised of 3 insulin secretion loci here associated with insulin secretion but not GDM. CONCLUSIONS: GDM in women from Punjab in Northern India shows a genetic component, seemingly driven by insulin resistance and secretion and partly shared with GDM in other parts of the world. Most previous T2D loci discovered in European studies did not associate with GDM in North India, indicative of different genetic etiology or alternately, differences in the linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure between populations in which the associated SNPs were identified and Northern Indian women. Interestingly some T2D risk variants were in fact indicative of being protective for GDM in these Indian women. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12920-018-0380-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.